Sulawesi (2) - Donggala and Diving with Germans

Sunset reflected on the clouds

After another gruelling 2 day journey involving local boat from Kadidiri to Wakai followed by a 5 hour ferry trip to Ampana, ojek (motorbike) ride to hotel where we overnighted before heading off the public minibus to Palu the next morning and finally an hour’s taxi ride to Donggala.  We were more than relieved to reach the Prince John Dive Resort situated in Tanjung Karang on mainland Sulawesi.

In Dutch colonial times, Donggala was the major port in this part of Sulawesi before the harbour silted up and they started to use the harbour at Palu instead.  Nowadays Donggala is a sleepy little town with lots of old traditional houses which we saw as we passed through on the taxi ride to the resort.  It is a town of little colourful houses and a small streets and it is hard to reconcile it with its important role in days gone by.

Togean Islands (2) - Kadidiri and Volcanic Diving and Snorkelling

Paul captured this amazing shot

Although tiny, Kadidiri was much busier and social than Island Retreat.  We opted to stay at Black Marlin Dive Resort and we are glad we did although either of the other two options would have been good too.

Black Marlin is managed by an English guy whose management skills leave a lot to be desired.  The dive masters, Nick and Zina, are fantastic, as are the Indonesian staff but if the place was reliant upon Crispin’s customer service skills I suspect the place would barely survive. 

Food was included in the room rate and we had heard the food was awful at all the resorts here but we actually found it OK by Indonesian standards.  Yes, there was a lot of rice and fish, but it was all very nice (and I can be fussy).

Togean Islands (1) - Bomba - Seclusion and Isolation

Our hut

From the moment we arrived on the beach at Island Retreat we started to relax after our long three day journey from Pulau Derawan.  It was going to be lovely to be able to stay in one place for a week.

We were shown to our bungalow with a large veranda which had a huge hammock, strong enough to hold Paul so he claimed it as his own, a small table and a bench with cushions.   We were served a little lunch in the restaurant and proceeded to spend the rest of the day doing what we planned to do a lot of.  Absolutely nothing was on the agenda except to stare out to sea blankly and maybe wander down the pier to watch the sunset.

Paul would think about booking some dives the following day but first we needed to recover from our 3 day trip.

Sulawesi (1) - The Long Trek to the Togean Islands via Ampana

The noisy mosque in Berau

We braced ourselves for the gruelling 3 day journey from Pulau Derawan to our first destination in the Togean Islands.  Needless to say we weren’t looking forward to it.  We travelled as far as Balikpapan with Boris and Léa who were heading to Flores from there.

First we left Pulau Derawan by speedboat, a 30 minute journey followed by 3 hours in a kijang to Berau which seemed to pass painfully slowly. 

Once we arrived in Berau we all checked into the same hotel.  Paul and I opted for the deluxe room but all this meant was that we had a window which wouldn’t shut.  Unfortunately this also meant that we heard the call to prayer loud and clear from the mosque about 50 metres down the road which on occasion had to compete with some kind of Indonesian rave music played by the people next door.

Borneo (6) - Pulau Derawan - Turtles and Clownfish Galore

Our pier

It had stopped raining by the time we arrived on the island at about 2 o’clock in the afternoon and the weather was clearing up nicely.  We started to investigate our new surroundings and wandered up and down the pier gazing into the sea searching for sea life, in particularly the famous turtles.  The first thing we saw was a huge puffer fish just by the pier, lionfish  and soon we were spotting turtles left, right and centre.  Pulau Derawan certainly delivered on the turtle front.

That afternoon, Paul and Boris went for a snorkel off the pier where we were staying.  Léa and I chose to relax on the veranda.  The boys returned with tales of coral, fish and masses of turtles.

Borneo (5) - Berau and the Journey to Pulau Derawan

Paul in First Class luxury

Our next destination was Pulau Derawan, a small island off the east coast of Kalimantan which involved flying from Pangkalan Bun to Berau with a 4 hour stopover at Balikpapan.  As we would be arriving quite late at Berau we would need to stay overnight before travelling by kijang (basically, a 4WD car) Tanjung Putin and then speedboat to Pulau Derawan.

Everything went smoothly at Banjamarsin Airport and in fact we were given seats in first class (again, it was noted that Paul is quite long) which meant that we had more room travelling than we had had since we travelled by sleeper train.  If only this happened on long flights!  However, this flight was only 40 minutes which was a shame really because it was so much more comfortable that flying by our usual cattle class.

On the flight across the south east of Kalimantan it became clear just how much of the land is used for palm oil and why it is such a threat to the indigenous wildlife.  For a large part of the trip we could see nothing out of the window except a patchwork of palm oil fields stretching as far as they eye could see.  It is alarming just how much of this beautiful island has been stripped to grow this crop which saps the land and leaves it worthless after just a few years.  The palm oil producers continued to inch their way even into protected areas (money talks in Indonesia) and threatening, most famously, the orangutans and many other creatures.  You can only hope there are enough people like our guide Jenie who realise what is at stake.

Borneo (4) - Two Sides of Banjamarsin

One of the many mosques on the riverside

We flew from Pangkalan Bun to Banjamarsin direct.  We were given seats by the emergency exit because the flight crew noted that Paul was "very long" so it was a very comfortable flight.

We arrived at the Hotel Regenerasi, the hotel we had booked online via Booking.com, and it was at this point that I started to dislike the place intensely.  The manager spoke quite good English, having been educated at Leeds University and we suspect he came from Java.  It is a common cause for resentment among the local people on Kalimantan that people from Java, who tend to be better educated and have more money to begin with, come over and take all the good jobs in tourism.  It seems the Javanese are not well liked throughout the rest of Indonesia.